Natural Selection 2

Kodiak Update Released!

Today, a new map: Kodiak, created by community mapper and modder Loki, was released officially as part of Natural Selection 2! This day is the culmination of months of hard work by Loki to create a map that stands proudly alongside the previous eight official maps.

Kodiak is now available for everyone to play, and will automatically download from Steam when you next update Natural Selection 2 via the Steam client. All official servers will be running Kodiak only for the next few days.

Lush vegetation, free flowing rivers, and vistas of an asteroid field characterise Kodiak. Three enormous Biospheres run down the centre, forming the path for a river and dense vegetation. These areas create gameplay the likes of which Natural Selection 2 has never seen, with aliens and marines alike playing hide and seek among the foliage.

There is much more to this story than just a new map. Today, the Kodiak Pack was released on Steam! The Kodiak Pack includes new camouflage armour for Frontiersmen, Exosuits, and Skulks, and a new Kodiak Shoulder Pad. Naturally, when fighting in the forest, you will want to blend in, and you can also wear these new armours on any map!

Kodiak was created by a community mapper: Loki, and for every copy of the Kodiak Pack sold on Steam, Loki will get 50% of the earnings. This means that every time someone buys the Kodiak Pack, they are not just getting sweet new NS2 gear and supporting Unknown Worlds, they are also directly supporting the Natural Selection 2 modding community.

All of the toys included in the Kodiak Pack can be accessed via a new in-game customisation system, accessed through the main menu while in a server. Special Edition, Deluxe Edition, Reinforcement Program, World Championship, and of course Kodiak armour, lifeforms, and badges may be accessed in this menu, and previewed live.

This new customisation system is a hint at what is going on under the hood in the Kodiak Update: Lots. Loki was not the only community member to work on this update, countless others have been working directly on Kodiak to take it beyond the map, and into the core game.

Rantology took charge of the art direction of Kodiak, designing and creating the new items available in the Kodiak Pack, the customisation sytem, and other elements of the update.

SamusDroid was the technical leader of the project, coding in all the new features and fixes. SamusDroid has spent untold hours on engineering the Kodiak Update, and the care and attention he has shown towards Natural Selection 2 and the needs of its players is truly wonderful.

The Unknown Worlds playtest group, now number over sixty dedicated individuals, pulled out all the stops to test, test, test and test the Kodiak Update for hours on end. They also served as Academy Award winning actors in the Kodiak Trailer!

This is a very exciting Natural Selection 2 update. This game is now over one and a half years old on Steam, and by any reasonable standard, that is a long time to go while still receiving active development attention. The Kodiak Update is not just fun, it is also a test: Could this new development method, combining the talents of Unknown Worlds and devoted Natural Selection 2 players, yield even more updates in future? See the full changelog below:

FixesFixed massive lag caused when using webadmin on a serverFixed force even teams causing script errors, server crashes, and ghost player models Force even teams is now pre-game only and has a new console command sv_forceeventeamsFixed Insight Spectator System not supporting spaces in team names. Use team1 and team2 commands individually not the teams commandFixed Alien structures not pulsing red when taking damage from being uncystedFixed Hallucinations all being normal variant modelFixed shoulder patches and visors not fading with a dead MarineFixed failing to connect to a server first try with extra precaching onFixed unbuilt Command Stations showing "locked" screenFixed percentage sign in server name breaking the scoreboardFixed entering in blank values in option menu numerical input causing script errorsFixed Skulk growl sound always playing when holding the walk keyFixed getting stomped by Onos with welder causing running animationFixed Fade and Onos view models being outlinedFixed missing first person view model for Female Nerve Gas GrenadesFixed Marines that get killed by Stomp play the "stand up" animation before turning into a ragdollFixed flinch animation on Sentry Batteries not loopingFixed outdated Docking and Tram loading screensFixed evolve last upgrade key working with console openChanged default Marine skin option name from “Green” to “Normal” for consistency with other options

FeaturesAdded new map Kodiak, by LokiAdded Kodiak Update DLCAdded Kodiak camouflage marines, skulks, and exosuitAdded Kodiak shoulder padAdded an in-game player customization menu (open menu while in game to see)Added player names to minimap. Added GUI option, and console command minimapnames to toggle the namesAdded Biodome concept art to loading screensAdded mod download percentage to loading screenParasited Marine name tags and minimap blips now appear yellowAdded console command filmsmoothing <number> will now adjust the mouse movement scalar while in film modeImproved chat wrapping method to work better over more resolutionsAdded port field to create listen server pageLowered minimum mouse sensitivity to 0.01

SDKAdded support for UTF-8 in font renderingRemoved OpenGL support for WindowsImplemented texture atlasing for Rifle and Exosuit textures (Click here for more information on this change[forums.unknownworlds.com])Fixed Builder not copying over .entry filesAdded support for non-clingable geometry to stop Skulks/Lerks/Mines/Clogs clinging to invisible geometry. Use surface = "nocling" in material fileAdded support for toggling highlight of models in Alien Vision through codeAdded support for animated models using AnimatedModel.lua

VeilFixed Commander building exploits in Sub Sector and The Dome Fixed exploit that allowed Lerks to get out of the map Fixed invisible wall in C12 pillar

Even suggesting that you would charge for crowd-sourced or "community" updates is ridiculous. Natural Selection received free development for years on top of being free at inception. Natural Selection 2 is a less enjoyable, prettier and refined version of the same. Your reinforcement program is offensive enough, and now you have the gall to offer DLC packs. Not to mention (mentioning) that you have never been able to decide whether the game is for the incredibly small demographic of e-sports players or your actual customer base of non-professionals.